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Background to the Canons of Dort

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Background to the Canons of Dort Background to the Canons of Dort We’re about to embark on a study of the Canons of Dort. And yes, those Canons form a daunting read, as you perhaps well know. You crack open the Canons, and immediately meet something called a “head of doctrine”—related, surely, to a head of cabbage. One reads next of “Divine Election and Reprobation”—and we suspect we’ve stumbled into the realm of heavenly politics. Hardly stimulating material for the questions of this life! And that’s only the beginning. You page through the Canons and find that each head of doctrine consists of multiple articles setting forth some pretty complicated dogma. You take a run at a sentence, and try again, and then once more before you feel you’ve got your head a bit around what it wants to say—and then bump into a series of articles described as “Rejection of Errors” that read as if they’re gospel truth themselves! And if all of that isn’t confusing enough, the subjects raised on the pages of the Canons are the very subjects that repeatedly niggle on the inconsistency between our conduct and our conscience. We confront questions as: • I’m not such a bad person, am I? • I know so many good people. Why do bad things happen to them? Or to me? • Would God really cast into hell decent people who happen to be unbelievers? Surely it’s most unfair to damn eternally people who through accident of birth were raised far from the Christian faith and never heard the gospel? • Is Jesus really the only way to be saved? Why? • Am I saved? How do I know? • Is it possible that one day I could end up denying the faith I today embrace? If not, how do you explain the neighbour I knew as a godly man, but has left his wife and kids and immersed himself into the lifestyle the Bible categorically condemns? Could I do the same? 1 BacKGROUND to THE CANONS OF Dort Big questions these are, and yes, the Canons of Dort dare to cover them. In the pages that follow we’ll survey the thinking of the Canons as they answer these and similar questions. First, though, we should gain some understanding of the context in which these Canons were written. Historical Background Nearly four hundred years ago some one hundred men gathered in the Dutch town of Dortrecht (commonly known as Dort), close to the city of Rotterdam. Five Dutch theologians, fifty-seven ministers and elders from across the Netherlands, twenty-one commissioners from several governments (federal or provincial) across the country, twenty-seven delegates from foreign countries, plus a handful of interested observers: it was an imposing assembly of learned church men and empowered government officials. The very mix of people present speaks to the potential for disagreement, and the need to strive to understand one another. We’re left to wonder: how could this diverse group ever be a blessing to the churches? The opening meeting took place on November 13, 1618, and the final—154 sittings later—occurred on May 9, 1619. In the six months these men met, they compiled the Canons of Dort, finalized the Church Order of Dort, and authorized an up-to-date Dutch translation of the Holy Bible (the so-called Statenvertaling that finally appeared in 1637)—and that’s only a beginning of what these men accomplished. The bulk of their time went to the formation of the Canons of Dort, the document that we’ll study in detail in this publication. When? The Synod of Dort sat four hundred years ago. To us in our fast-paced twenty-first century, that sounds like an eternity ago. And it is long ago; so much can change in four months, let alone in four centuries. Perhaps, then, it’s worth pausing to try to grasp something of what happened in the years leading up to this Synod. I highlight the following points: • 1517: Martin Luther published his ninety-five position statements, supposedly by nailing them to the door of that church in Wittenberg. This event, of course, kick-started the Great Reformation. I’ll come back in a moment to why this Reformation was necessary. For now, it’s enough to note that in the years that followed, Luther’s tracts and 2 publications spread over much of Europe, so that many people who had been raised on a doctrine of salvation by works came to know and love the good news of salvation by grace alone. Through no effort of one’s own God freely gives forgiveness of sins. That’s good news indeed for people whose sins burden them! • 1536: John Calvin published his first edition of his Institutes of the Christian Religion. In his Institutes Calvin set forth, on the basis of ample biblical evidence and with broad appeal to the chief thinkers of the early church, a well-thought-out system of the teaching the Lord had revealed in Holy Scripture. His Institutes went through multiple editions as Calvin’s own insights grew, with the fifth and final edition appearing in 1559. His work had a profound effect upon the thinking of many preachers and thinkers across Europe, with as blessed result their preaching moving increasingly closer to Scripture. • 1561: Guido de Brès completed and published the Belgic Confession. He did this in a context of intense persecution, as authorities sought to wipe out from the Netherlands those who embraced the ancient gospel of Scripture as the Reformers (notably John Calvin) had rediscovered it. He later died a martyr’s death (1567) because he continued to preach and teach the gospel of free grace. Various Synods of the fledging Reformed Churches of the Netherlands in the 1570s and 1580s affirmed the Belgic Confession as an accurate summary of what the Lord had revealed in his Word. • 1563: In the Palatinate city of Heidelberg, at the request of Elector Frederick III, Caspar Olevianus and Zacharias Ursinus finalized the Heidelberg Catechism. This Catechism was intended to be a tool to instruct converts from Roman Catholicism, particularly young people, to the truth of Scripture. It was quickly recognized as a superb tool for that goal: by 1566 it was available in Dutch and used in those churches as a guide in the preaching. National Synods in the 1570s repeatedly confirmed that the Heidelberg Catechism was an accurate summary of the Lord’s Word, and required office bearers to go on public record (through a signature) that they agreed with its content. • 1572: With persecution over, the first Dutch synod was held on Dutch soil. A period of intense church-building followed, with ministers and office bearers dedicated to teaching and defending the truth of Scripture as summarized in the Belgic Confession and the Heidelberg Catechism. 3 BacKGROUND to THE CANONS OF Dort All in all, in a period of two generations—the time, say, between the end of the Second World War and today—a continent once ensnared by the repressive works-doctrine of Roman Catholicism (“Have I done enough to please God? Am I good enough to win his favour?”) received new life and energy with the glorious gospel of forgiveness of sins only through God’s grace in Jesus Christ. This development represented a liberating turnaround in understanding how a finite, fallible human being relates to God, and can only be ascribed to the mighty and marvellous work of God through the Holy Spirit. It is not surprising, then, that the glorious gains of the Reformation were soon under severe attack as Satan fought to re-ensnare the people he had lost to the gospel of free grace. The Synod of Dort was a decisive moment in resisting Satan’s advances. To get a handle on those advances, we need to appreciate more detail of the actual struggle. Two Kinds of Reformed In the wake of the Great Reformation that washed through Europe in general and over the Netherlands in particular, there developed (for want of a better term) two kinds of Reformed people. The terms are not precise, but it will do for now to describe the two groups as Calvinist Reformed and Arminian Reformed. Two Kinds of Reformed FIGURE 1 REFORMED Calvinist Arminian Reformed Reformed Calvinist Reformed The Calvinist Reformed were very comfortable with what John Calvin had written in his Institutes. They believed the Bible to be the inspired Word of God, and accepted at face value all it said (adhering, of course, to the normal rules for reading). They recognized that God the 4 Creator formed a world free of pain and brokenness. As the Creator of all, he was also entitled to tell creatures why they live and how they are to live day by day. People, however, rebelled against God’s clear instructions, and so ruined the peace and delights of his perfect world. As a result, so much pain and grief entered this world. God, though, told fallen people what he would do through his Son Jesus Christ to restore this fallen world. Holy Scripture is the record of God carrying out his plan of redemption. So the Calvinist Reformed argued that God’s Word was not to be challenged, but instead to be embraced in humility and obeyed. The child of God, then, reads God’s Word in the midst of life’s actual, daily questions, and then repeats after God (be it in his own words) what the Lord has revealed in his Word. This repeating after God is one’s confession—a statement of faith that echoes accurately (though not necessarily completely) what God has revealed.
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